ment of Great Britain and Ireland which met after the Union with Ireland in 1801; the parliament which in 1832 passed the Reform Bill, and the parliament which in 1846 passed the repeal of the Corn Laws. 1. PARLIAMENT, (Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak or talk.) 2. CHARTER, a formal written document conferring or confirming titles, rights, or privileges. 3. BURGESS, an inhabitant of a borough. 4. IMMUNITY, freedom from obligation or duty. (Lat, immunitas, in, not, munus, duty.) 5. SPEAKER, the person chosen to preside in the House of Commons. 6. WRIT, a written document by which one is summoned or required to do something. 7. PREROGATIVE, an exclusive or peculiar privilege. 8. HABEAS CORPUS ACT, a celebrated Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Charles II. By this Act it is forbidden to send any one to a prison beyond the sea. No judge, under severe penalties, must refuse to any prisoner a writ of habeas corpus, by which the gaoler is directed to produce in court the body of the prisoner (whence the writ had its name), and to certify the cause of his detainer and imprisonment. SUNDAY. O DAY most calm, most bright, The fruit of this, the next world's bud, Man had straight forward gone Whom, if we were not very dull We could not choose but look on still, The which He doth not fill. Sundays the pillars are On which Heaven's palace arched lies And hollow room, with vanities; The Sundays of man's life, Threaded together on Time's string, Thou art a day of mirth, ; And when the week-days trail on ground, Oh, let me take thee at the bound, GEORGE HERBERT. 4 1. INDORSEMENT, sanction or permission given to anything; lit. a writing upon the back. (Lat. dorsum, the back.) 2. WIFE, &c., this means the Church, which is often called "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (see Rev. xix. v. 7. 8). 3. RIFE, abundant. 4. GEORGE HERBERT, see biographical sketch, FIFTH Book, p. 216. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ARCHDEACON PALEY. WILLIAM PALEY, the celebrated theologian, was born at Peterborough in 1743, and died in 1805. His father was a clergyman, and the younger Paley, after a successful career at college, embraced the same profession, in which he attained to considerable eminence; he is, however, chiefly famous for his literary labours; his last work, “Natural Theology," was so favourably received, that it reached the tenth edition in less than three years. The best known of his other works are, "Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy," and "The Evidences of Christianity." HAPPINESS FOUND THROUGHOUT CREATION. WE cannot help acknowledging what an exertion of benevolence creation was; of a benevolence how minute in its care, how vast in its comprehension. It is a happy world after all; the air, the earth, the water, teem1 with delighted existence. In a spring noon, or summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads 2 of happy beings crowd my view. Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their wanton ways, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without use or purpose, testify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discovered faculties.1 3 A bee among the flowers in spring is one of the most cheerful objects, that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment, so busy and so pleased; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. The whole winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon their proper employments, and under every variety of constitution, gratified, and perhaps equally gratified by the offices which the Author of their nature has assigned to them. But the atmosphere 5 is not the only scene of enjoyment for the insect race. Plants are 6 covered with aphides, greedily sucking their juices, and constantly, as it would seem, in the act of so doing. It cannot be doubted but that this is a state of gratification. What else should fix them so close to the operation, and so long? Other species are running about, with an alacrity in their motions which carries with it every mark of pleasure. Large patches of ground are sometimes half covered with those brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to what the waters produce, shoals of the fry of fish frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, and of the sea itself. These are so happy, that they know not what to do with themselves. Their attitudes, their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it (which I have noticed a thousand times with equal attention and amusement), all conduce to show their excess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that excess. Walking by the sea-side in a calm evening upon a sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height perhaps of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and always retiring with the water. When this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much space filled with young shrimps, in the act of bounding into the air from the shallow margin of the water, or from the wet sand. If any motion of a dumb animal could express delight, it was this; if they had meant to make signs of their happiness, they could not have done it more intelligibly.8 The young of all animals appear to me to receive pleasure simply from the exercise of their limbs and bodily faculties, without reference to any end to be attained, or any use to be answered, by the exertion. A child is delighted with speaking, without having anything to say; and with walking, without knowing where to go. But it is not for youth alone, that the great Parent of Creation hath provided. Happiness is found with the purring cat, no less than with the playful kitten; in the arm-chair of dozing age, as well as in the sprightliness of the dance, or the animation of the chase. To novelty, to acuteness of sensation, to hope, to ardour of pursuit, succeeds what is, in no inconsiderable degree, an equivalent for them all, "the perception of ease." Herein is the exact difference between the pleasures of the young and the old. The young are not happy but when enjoying pleasure; the old are happy when free from pain. And these constitutions suit with the degrees of animal power, which they respectively possess. The vigour of youth has to be stimulated 10 to action by impatience of rest; whilst to the weakness of age, quietness and repose become positive gratifications. In one important respect the advantage is with the old. A state of ease is, generally speaking, more attainable than one of pleasure. A constitution, which can enjoy ease, is preferable to that, which can taste only pleasure. The appearance of satisfaction, with which most animals, as their activity subsides, seek and enjoy rest, affords reason to believe, that this sort of gratification is appointed to advanced life under all or most of its |